"Man's Search for Meaning" 「夜と霧」

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Aug 15, 2012 20:18

I came to know that after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, a lot of people in the northern Japan started to read "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Viktor Emil Frankl. Japanese title of the book is "夜と霧", that means "Night and Fog".

The huge disaster has sent them into the depths of despair. Still many of them have been in a state in which all hope is lost. It seems for me that they are struggling to search for a ray of hope in the book.

Here's some messages from the book that impressed me the most.

Anytime, there's a meaning of your life.There's somebody who is waiting for you.There's something that you need to work on.Surely, there's something that you can do for them.

I think people are always searching for the meaning of life and need to feel they have a purpose especially after something horrible like the March 11 disasters. I watched a documentary film 'The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom' a couple of weeks ago. In the film survivors of the earthquake and tsunami were finding hope and meaning in the first cherry blossom blooms after the disaster. It moved me to tears to see the people finding purpose, support and hope in caring for the sakura while trying to rebuild their community.

I also need to remind myself that life should be valued when I get frustrated with little things. I sometimes think about the September 11 attacks in New York, Hurricane Katrina that destroyed New Orleans and of course the March 11 disasters in Japan and then my troubles don't seem so important. It is too bad though that it takes such terrible events to remind us how precious our lives are.

This is kind of related to your post, about finding inspiration, and positiveness in the aftermath of a disaster. It's about a travel agent (who lost his job) walking across Japan in order to raise awareness that Japan is safe to travel to.

Since they still feel hope is lost, I switched "have been" to "are". That keeps it in the present tense.

It seems for me that they are struggling to search for a ray of hope in the book.

It seems forto me that they are struggling to search forfind a ray of hope in the book.

Here's some messages from the book that impressed me the most.

Here's some messagesa passage from the book that impressed me the most.

I changed "some messages" to "a passage" for two reasons. 1 - It looks like the last 4 lines of your writing are meant to go together. 2 - While that text may contain a message of some sort, since it comes from a book the proper word for it is "passage".

Anytime, there's a meaning of your life.

Anytime, there's a meaning ofin your life.

If I'm correct that the last 4 lines are meant to be read together, you might want to throw some quotes around them. Like this:

"Anytime, there's a meaning of your life.There's somebody who is waiting for you.There's something that you need to work on.Surely, there's something that you can do for them."

Here's some messagesa passage from the book that impressed me the most.

I changed "some messages" to "a passage" for two reasons. 1 - It looks like the last 4 lines of your writing are meant to go together. 2 - While that text may contain a message of some sort, since it comes from a book the proper word for it is "passage".

I came to know that after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, a lot of people in the northern Japan started to read "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Viktor Emil Frankl.

I came to know that after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, a lot of people in Northern Japan (/in the north of Japan) started to read "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Viktor Emil Frankl.

Still many of them have been in a state in which all hope is lost.

Still many of them are in a state of hopelessness.

It seems for me that they are struggling to search for a ray of hope in the book.

It seems to me that they are searching for (/struggling to find /struggling, searching for) a ray of hope in the book.

Here's some messages from the book that impressed me the most.

Here are (some of) the (book's) messages that impressed me the most (/that most impressed me).

Anytime, there's a meaning of your life.

There's always meaning to your life.

There's somebody who is waiting for you.

Because somewhere there is someone who is waiting for you (/who needs you (/your help)),

There's something that you need to work on.

and there's an opportunity (that is) waiting for you (/something that only you can do).

Surely, there's something that you can do for them.

It is within your power to take that chance and help that someone (/that person (in need)).

I tried to make the passage from the book sound more inspirational. Then, I searched online and found this similarly-themed quote:

"A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how.'"

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I came to know that after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, a lot of people in the northern Japan started to read "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Viktor Emil Frankl. Japanese title of the book is "夜と霧", that means "Night and Fog".
The huge disaster has sent them into the de